Quantum communications are gaining more and more interest in the research community thanks to the recent advancements in nanotechnology. Indeed, quantum phenomena represent a natural direction for developing nanotechnology. The exploitation of quantum nature of information offers new potential solutions in the field of computing and networking, and extends the communication potentiality to levels that cannot be imagined in classical communication systems. Quantum communications can be realized in different ways. In this paper, we focus on the exploitation of quantum particles and quantum channels, in order to realize a data transmission system by means of phonons. First, we introduce the channel model of a phonon-based quantum system, and then derive the analysis of the error probability associated to such quantum channel. The application scenario is a biological environment, where phonons are exploited as information carriers. We have dealt a numerical evaluation in order to assess the performance of the quantum communication system. In particular, we have derived numerical results in terms of the error probability and the activity time, which represent how effective are phonons for communication purpose. We observe the frequency dependence of both error probability and activity time, thus allowing to tune the frequency for performance optimization.
Quantum communications are gaining more and more interest in the research community thanks to the recent advancements in nanotechnology. Indeed, quantum phenomena represent a natural direction for developing nanotechnology. The exploitation of quantum nature of information offers new potential solutions in the field of computing and networking, and extends the communication potentiality to levels that cannot be imagined in classical communication systems. Quantum communications can be realized in different ways. In this paper, we focus on the exploitation of quantum particles and quantum channels, in order to realize a data transmission system by means of phonons. First, we introduce the channel model of a phonon-based quantum system, and then derive the analysis of the error probability associated to such quantum channel. The application scenario is a biological environment, where phonons are exploited as information carriers. We have dealt a numerical evaluation in order to assess the performance of the quantum communication system. In particular, we have derived numerical results in terms of the error probability and the activity time, which represent how effective are phonons for communication purpose. We observe the frequency dependence of both error probability and activity time, thus allowing to tune the frequency for performance optimization.
Nanotechnology, as enabler of the miniaturization of devices in a scale ranging from 1 to few hundreds of nm , represents a viable solution for “ alternative” communication paradigms that could be effective in complex networked systems, as body area networks. Traditional communication paradigms are not effective in the context of joint body and nano-networked systems, for several reasons, and then novel approaches have been investigated such as nanomechanical, electromagnetic, acoustic, molecular, etc. On the other hand, quantum phenomena represent a natural direction for developing nanotechnology, since it has to be considered as a new scale where new phenomena can occur and can be exploited for information purpose. Specific quantum particles are phonons, the quanta of mechanical vibrations (i.e., acoustic excitations), that can be analyzed as potential information carriers in a body networked context. In this paper we will focus on the generation of phonons from photon-phonon interaction, by irradiating a sample of human tissue with an electro-magnetic field, and then we will theoretically derive the information capacity and the bit rate in the frequency range [103- 1012] Hz.
Quantum information processing exploits the quantum nature of information. It offers fundamentally new solutions in the field of computer science and extends the possibilities to a level that cannot be imagined in classical communication systems. For quantum communication channels, many new capacity definitions were developed in comparison to classical counterparts. A quantum channel can be used to realize classical information transmission or to deliver quantum information, such as quantum entanglement. Here we review the properties of the quantum communication channel, the various capacity measures and the fundamental differences between the classical and quantum channels.
Quantum information processing exploits the quantum nature of information. It offers fundamentally new solutions in the field of computer science and extends the possibilities to a level that cannot be imagined in classical communication systems. For quantum communication channels, many new capacity definitions were developed in comparison to classical counterparts. A quantum channel can be used to realize classical information transmission or to deliver quantum information, such as quantum entanglement. In this paper we overview the properties of the quantum communication channel, the various capacity measures and the fundamental differences between the classical and quantum channels.
Quantum information processing exploits the quantum nature of information. It offers fundamentally new solutions in the field of computer science and extends the possibilities to a level that cannot be imagined in classical communication systems. For quantum communication channels, many new capacity definitions were developed in comparison to classical counterparts. A quantum channel can be used to realize classical information transmission or to deliver quantum information, such as quantum entanglement. Here we review the properties of the quantum communication channel, the various capacity measures and the fundamental differences between the classical and quantum channels.
Born about a century ago, Quantum Mechanics has revolutionized the description and the interpretation of Physics at sub-microscopic level. In the last decades, due to the influence of mathematical and engineering research fields, Quantum Mechanics has given birth to related research areas like Quantum Computation, Quantum Information and Quantum Communication. With the discovery of the laser, and later the development of fiber optics and satellite networks, Quantum Communication and Quantum Optics seems to have a natural field of application in Communication Systems. Despite this, the interest in this technology and studies for communication purpose has been overshadowed by the great results in communication networks achieved in the last decades with classical paradigms. However, due to the increasing demand of communication data rate, system designers are now looking at Quantum Mechanics for new and more performanting solutions in communication purposes. Early theoretical studies on Quantum Discrimination Theory and Quantum Information predict better performance for Communication Systems that take advantage of the quantum laws. In addition, Quantum Mechanics provides the deepest description of the physical phenomena, and there are scenarios where a quantum model fits best, as in in deep space communications, where the received signal is really weak, or in a satellite networks, where we are interested in strongly reducing the power of transmitted signals, possibly without sacrificing performance significantly. However, if on one side Quantum Communication Theory promises great gains in the performance of communication systems, on the other hand it fails to describe how to implement physical devices that reach these ultimate limits. So far, only a few architectures achieving these performances are known, and only for simple modulation formats. We are interested in the scenario of optical communications, where the message transmitted is encoded in a sequence of coherent states. Transmitter devices for coherent modulation are well known and consist in laser pulse generators. Instead, receiver implementations working at the quantum limit performance limit are yet to be found. In this Thesis I deal with different topics in the quantum transmission scenario. First, I review existing classical (suboptimal) and quantum (suboptimal and optimal) receiver schemes for the binary coherent modulation. I present a new formulation of the optimal scheme known as Dolinar Receiver with the multiple copies problem, focusing on the information gained during the measurement. Second, I analyze the binary communication in a noisy environment, studying the error probability and the capacity of the binary channel induced. Given the description of the quantum channel, I optimize both the transmitted quantum states and the measurement operators employed in the communication. Third, I consider the Pulse Position Modulation, that is particularly suitable for space and satellite communication due to its simplicity of implementation and high capacity. I review some known suboptimal receivers, and I propose a receiver scheme which approaches the limit performance predicted with quantum theory outperforming the existing schemes. To sum up the results of this Thesis, in order to approach the limit performance predicted by Quantum Mechanics, an optimization is always necessary to exceed the classical effects and trigger the quantum phenomena. In particular, the information gained during the measurement plays an important role, for example in the definition of adaptive receivers. In this Thesis both these aspects have been deeply investigated.